Texas Middle School Bans All-Black Clothing Citing Depression

Here's the latest from the Texas school system.

The Ban

A middle school in El Paso has banned it's students from wearing all black clothing citing depression, metal health issues, and criminal behavior. Really? Why not ban ducks because they cause speeding? No, that does not make sense, neither of the things you just read do. Then again, maybe the 4th ranked middle school in El Paso, and #963rd ranked middle school in Texas is full of secret geniuses that know something we don't know.

Huh?

I have so many questions. First, and most importantly, if you have a person that's suffering from depression, is this the best way you can think of to help them? If so, I'm surprised more mental health professionals don't prescribe shirts with bold colors to treat depression. This reasoning is so weird and abstract that I'm having a hard time processing it.

Old Prejudice

I have personally addressed a school principal who banned black shirts. It's just such and arbitrary and insignificant thing to worry about when the kids have so much to learn and such a short time to learn it. We also have to ask, what about the kids who are wearing what they wear due to economic issues?

Hiding A Problem

Even the people involved say something to the effect of "kids get depressed and start wearing black". Now, doesn't that mean that black is warning you there's a problem, and if you take the black away, you may never know it?  I don't believe in this school of thought either, but it shows that their is a huge flaw in their own reasoning and remedy. What they are doing is trying to solve depression by changing the way kids dress when they are depressed. It's basically the kid saying, "I'm depressed", and the school district saying, "Shhhh..we don't want to deal with that".

Final Word

This dress code supposedly concerns wearing "black head to toe" and that one black item here and there may not be in violation of the dress code. It's still a ridiculous waste of time for everyone involved. This is 100% one of those "solutions" that make the people involved feel like they've done something, when they really haven't. Lastly, taking this very mild form of expression away from kids can really back fire. Let's hope that doesn't happen.